Jonathan Oosting | MLive.comAlbert Kahn and Associate's Maccabees Building at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Fewer than one in 10 black students graduate from Wayne State University in Detroit within six years of enrolling.

With white students succeeding at more than four times that rate, the university is home to the largest black-white graduation gap of any public university in the nation, according to a report released earlier this month by Washington D.C-based The Education Trust.

Of the 15,478 enrolled at the university in 2007, nearly 30 percent where black. Of those, only 9.5 percent graduated within six years of enrollment between 2006-08. By comparison, 43.5 percent of white students graduated during the same span.

Mamie Lynch, a research and policy analyst with The Education Trust who co-authored the report, said in an accompanying release that other universities with similar enrollment trends -- such as Old Dominion University in Virginia -- did not see the same graduation gap.

"We did uncover some large gaps in student success rates and low graduation rates for students of color, she said. "But it would be wrong to assume that these gaps are inevitable or immutable. For many of the 'big gap' schools, we can point to an institution working with a similar student body that graduates students of color at rates similar to those of white students."

Wayne State academic adviser and recruiter Frank Koscielski tells The Detroit News the finding is "inexcusable." Officials say they are working to graduate more students across the board, focusing their efforts on students from Detroit who may enroll with less academic and financial preparation than their peers.

While Wayne State topped the list for public universities, Lawrence Technological University in Southfield was home to the largest black-white graduation gap among private schools, with only 19.2 percent of black students graduating between 2006-08.

Nationally, 60 percent of white students who enrolled in college graduated within six years, compared to 49 percent of Latino students and 40 percent of black students.

"Higher education institutions that place success at the heart of their mission make it a realistic goal for every student," said report co-author Jennifer Engle. "For both moral and economic reasons, colleges need to ensure that their institutions work better for all of the students they serve."